Pakistan car bomb kills dozens, wounds scores

PAKISTAN

Salman Masood, New York Times

Published
4:00 am PST, Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Pakistani rescue workers search for victims in the rubble of a destroyed building and the wreckage of a vehicle following a car bomb blast in Faisalabad on March 8, 2011. A car bomb planted by suspected Islamic militants exploded at a filling station in Pakistan's Punjab province, killing at least 22 people and wounding 142 others, officials said. less

Pakistani rescue workers search for victims in the rubble of a destroyed building and the wreckage of a vehicle following a car bomb blast in Faisalabad on March 8, 2011. A car bomb planted by suspected Islamic ... more

Photo: Aamir Qureshi, AFP/Getty Images

Photo: Aamir Qureshi, AFP/Getty Images

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Pakistani rescue workers search for victims in the rubble of a destroyed building and the wreckage of a vehicle following a car bomb blast in Faisalabad on March 8, 2011. A car bomb planted by suspected Islamic militants exploded at a filling station in Pakistan's Punjab province, killing at least 22 people and wounding 142 others, officials said. less

Pakistani rescue workers search for victims in the rubble of a destroyed building and the wreckage of a vehicle following a car bomb blast in Faisalabad on March 8, 2011. A car bomb planted by suspected Islamic ... more

Photo: Aamir Qureshi, AFP/Getty Images

Pakistan car bomb kills dozens, wounds scores

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A car bomb exploded near an office of the country's premier intelligence agency in eastern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least 24 people and wounding more than 132, the police and emergency officials said.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Ahsanullah Ahsan, a Taliban spokesman, said the target was an office of the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, the main intelligence agency, located in the eastern city of Faisalabad, according to the Associated Press.

The bomb detonated at a nearby gas station, however, and Pakistani officials initially declined to confirm that the intelligence service was the intended target.

"Sensitive offices are well guarded, but it can be a message," said Aftab Cheema, the police chief of Faisalabad. He said the explosion was caused by a car bomb, not a suicide bomber.

Taliban insurgents have frequently attacked civilian and military targets across the country as Pakistan battles extremism and militancy. But the blast Tuesday was the first major terrorist strike inside the city in recent years.

Faisalabad, about 80 miles west of Lahore in Punjab province, is an industrial city known for its textile exports. Sectarian violence against minorities, especially Christians, has been on the rise in the city. Analysts say that banned Islamic militant groups have managed to increase their presence and influence in the city and its suburbs.

Organizations like Sipah-e-Sahaba and Lashkar-e-Taiba, which India and the United States have blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks, maintain their offices in the neighboring districts of Toba Tek Singh and Gojra, which also serve as recruiting grounds.

The explosives-laden vehicle was parked at a station that provided compressed natural gas for vehicles. The car bomb went off at 10:30 a.m. and left a 7-foot deep by 15-foot wide crater. The blast destroyed the station and several vehicles and damaged nearby buildings in the densely populated neighborhood.